How do I highlight text with color in confluence?

Cobin Bluth June 7, 2018

I have some documents in my Google Docs that I would like to transfer to Confluence.
My document makes heavy use of highlighting text in color to differentiate certain contextual elements in the document.

How do I highlight text with color in confluence?

14 answers

10 votes
David Oekroes December 8, 2021

I still don't see any options for highlighting text easily. What are your plans in this regard?

10 votes
Manon Soubies-Camy _Modus Create_
Community Leader
Community Leader
Community Leaders are connectors, ambassadors, and mentors. On the online community, they serve as thought leaders, product experts, and moderators.
June 7, 2018

Hello Cobin and welcome to Community!

There is an open feature request: Provide ability to easily highlight text with color in WYSIWYG editor, you can vote for it to show interest and watch it to be updated.

You can use macros as a workaround:

  • Info (blue)
  • Tip (green)
  • Warning (red)
  • Note (yellow)
  • Background Color (custom)
  • Panel (custom)
  • Status (single words)

You'll get this as a result:

 

highlight.PNG

Hope this helps,

- Manon

Laura Servidei November 5, 2018

how do you make the status box that big? Mine is only a few character wide, and after that it shows "..."

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Manon Soubies-Camy _Modus Create_
Community Leader
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November 5, 2018

Hello @Laura Servidei,

The status box is small and ends with "..." while in Edit mode, publish the page and it should be bigger :)

Like Eric Miller likes this
Laura Servidei November 5, 2018

DOH!

Thanks.

Vishal S June 1, 2022

but still when i wanted to make my header in red color background i am not able to see red color in the background color list can someone help me on this,

Karan Shah August 16, 2022

There is no background colour option available. However, work around is use macro - status i.e., custom label.

Bilal September 13, 2023

It's remarkable that there's no text highlight for an enterprise-grade software. Why are you charging customers when customer still has to "vote" for a very basic feature?

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Johannes Gubo November 5, 2023

@Bilal agree, it's completely stupid and counter productive. Atlassian keeps failing for over a decade to delivery some of the most basic features across their entire product lineup.

9 votes
Stephen George March 22, 2022

One workaround available is to insert a simple, 1-cell table (by typing /table) and choosing from one of the available palette colors for the background of the cell:

Step 1 – Insert table.png

 

 

Step 2 – Add text and change background color.png

Result

Step 3 – Publish.png

5 votes
Scott Morris October 19, 2019

not really an answer. more of an add-on. i really want to highlight text inline from my page, not put it in its own box. i need to identify code to be changed vs. code that is good. maybe i'm just stuck in an old version of confluence?

Hitesh Jain March 23, 2022

If you figure this out please share it.

1 vote
steve willls
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March 17, 2024

To highlight text with color in Confluence, you can use the text color feature. Simply select the text you want to highlight, then click on the 'Text color' option in the viva cut apk formatting toolbar. From there, choose your desired color. This should help maintain the context and visual elements from your Google Docs documents.

1 vote
Dean Ramdhayan June 7, 2023

This is the most basic function for documentation, how are you worth billions of dollars and not able to implement this

1 vote
John Bartlett March 20, 2023

Yellow highlighting is typically used to indicate 'work to do' in a document. I achieve this by commenting on the text, which highlights it in yellow and add a comment in 'to do'. Using comments for highlights in this way has the added benefit of providing you with a list of you highlighted test on a page. Here's an example:

Screenshot 2023-03-21 103615.png

kris.van.de.vijver April 24, 2023

That's a perfect solution for me, thanks for this tip/workaround.

Alan Pham May 5, 2023

Brilliant!

1 vote
Zoriana Bogutska_Adaptavist_
Marketplace Partner
Marketplace Partners provide apps and integrations available on the Atlassian Marketplace that extend the power of Atlassian products.
December 12, 2022

Hi there, 

Using Content Formatting Macros for Confluence it is easy to highlight text using a background macro. 

Screenshot 2022-12-12 at 14.49.06.png

Also, for background, add-on users can upload pictures to improve the Confluence page design.

 

Screenshot 2022-12-12 at 14.51.47.png

This app is developed by my Adaptavist team, so if someone has any questions - I'm happy to help.

1 vote
Dave Hildebrandt May 27, 2021

Use the span macro to set the style.

Screen Shot 2021-05-27 at 9.33.55 AM.png

Andrew Rothman August 10, 2021

Where do we get that?

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Morgan Day February 26, 2022

I can't find it either...

Like Jon Andersen likes this
Adam Hechler September 20, 2022

I don't see a "span" macro

Alex R_ April 14, 2023

I have no idea what macro @Dave Hildebrandt was using, but I created my own:

## Macro title: Span
## Macro has a body: Y
## Body processing: Rendered
##
## Wraps content in a span tag with optional class name and styles for the tag. Do not include quotes in the class name or styles.
##
## @param Id:title=ID|type=string|option-showValueInPlaceholder=true
## @param Class:title=Class|type=string|desc=The class of the element
## @param Style:title=Style|type=string|desc=An inline ctyle definition
## @param Title:title=Title|type=string|desc=Text to display in a tool tip

<span
  #if ($paramId)
    id="$paramId"
  #end
  #if ($paramClass)
    class="$paramClass"
  #end
  #if ($paramStyle)
    style="$paramStyle"
  #end
  #if ($paramTitle)
    title="$paramTitle"
  #end
>$body</span>
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0 votes
jhonwills72
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March 17, 2024

To highlight text with color in Confluence, you can use the Text Color plugin. It allows you to select and apply various colors to your text, enhancing readability and Gta 4 visual appeal. Simply install the plugin from the Confluence Marketplace and follow the instructions for highlighting text.

Achim Haag March 18, 2024

"Gta 4" -> h....://cracksofshah.com/ obviously no serious content...

0 votes
lorant_z
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March 4, 2024

2024 and confluence still cannot highlight text background.... unbelievable....

0 votes
nicooletahehe November 23, 2022

Hello,

I used the 'Highlight' Macro:

highlightConfluence2.PNG

or the 'Background color' Macro. This one highlights the whole row, though ^^'.

highlightConfluence.PNG

Adam Hechler November 23, 2022

Where did you find a "highlight" macro? Did you purchase an add-on macro? Are you using Confluence Cloud? 

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0 votes
Hitesh Jain March 23, 2022
Achim Haag July 28, 2022

As always: what I expect as a Wiki default must be bought

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0 votes
Ollie Guan
Community Leader
Community Leader
Community Leaders are connectors, ambassadors, and mentors. On the online community, they serve as thought leaders, product experts, and moderators.
June 7, 2018
SG March 2, 2021

Looked promising, but is only available for server, which is no longer sold.

It's disappointing that text formatting options are so limited on Confluence.

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Morgan Day February 26, 2022

Ridiculously limited

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